Automoto games

BUGGY BOY

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Is this the biggest sprite ever seen on the Spec? Probably, but Buggy Boy had more to recommend it than a huge and colourful dune-hopper. A racing game without racing-game pace, Buggy Boy compensated with beaut graphics, lots of varied courses and imaginativea and addictive gameplay. Steering a buggy across a precarious and obstacle-littered bridge on two wheels is a challenge for the most talented, but this game's main attraction is pure and simple sweetness. If that seems a bit of an intangible concept, try playing it. You'll see what I mean...

CHEQUERED FLAG

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First year when it was produced, this game rarely left top ten lists. The formula one simulation made many problems in programming which Psion solved in usual style with solid quality. The game includes selection of one of three choosen cars for "Grand prix", taking time in account. Other than hellish complex changes of commands need to pass the track in big speed, additional problem come form marches of oil and water. The strength of the game is in simulating of chaleenges, that many of us dream about, but never will feel personally.

CHASE HQ

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After you've shown your Amiga and ST-owning chums Tetris why not really sicken them by loading up this superlative driving game? They'll be instantly converted to the Speccy gospel. Amazingly fast and incredibly well programmed, Chase HQ turned a mediocre arcade game into a Speccy classic. Even the title sequence was bursting with character, and indicative of the kind of loving care that so few people bother to put into Spectrum games any more. Only WEC Le Mans comes anywhere close to this for car-driving thrills. The added plot gives Chase HQ an element of compulsion which lifts it into the realms of the really special. A treat.

3D DEATH CHASE

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No apologies, no regrets. Y'see, spec-chums, I've been playing computer games for as long as computer games have existed. I've played thousands of them, from coin-op games to ZX81 games to Apple Macintosh games and all points in between. And the simple fact of the matter is that there isn't one in existence that's as exciting, as gripping, as tense, or as downright thrilling as this is. written in 1982 in just 9K of memory, Deathchase puts you on a motorbike ina forest, with no purpose in life other than to chase other characters on motorbikes and kill them for bounty money. Your enemies don't shoot back at you.

ENDURO RACER

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I could do a Top 100 of motorbike racers alone. But in any genre there are standouts and this is this is the best one where you have to jump across rivers by wheelying into logs, and ride around on the backs of palm trees on a beach (ahem). Enduro Racer is the slickest and prettiest racer around, and it's the kind of game that still won't be showing its age in 20 years time. If you ever wanted to cross Out Rum with Helter Skelter, this is the game for you.

FULL THROTTLE

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Autorace simulation moved on way set by "Chequered flag" lost the breath. Microomega thenm prefered "Grand prix" motorbike race, whose excelent version is "Full throttle". Mainly similar to previous game, this one has a big improvement, the real race with fourty motocyclists. All other is similar, curved track and scarce background. Where graphic is not unstable, the game can be evaluated in more detail.

SUPER HANG ON

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Do you feel a need? A need for speed? Well, sod off. We don't need any of that Tom Cruise nonsense round here, we're all too busy having fun playing this immensely wonderful motorbike racing game to be bothered with any dim-witted macho posturing. Super Hang-On is even more thrilling than going for a ride with Andy O, and that's really saying something. Fast slick and stomach-churning, this is the real thing brought to life on a Spectrum with a vengence, and with some pretty spiffy graphics to boot. If you were born to be wild, grow up with this.

WEC LE MANS

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Motor-racing on track simulator which really gives the speed sensation, especially when running through slopes. The race takes place on a single track against a certain number of opponents which try to bar our way. The time available is limited but it is increased every time we pass through the intermediate posts. The graphics are detailed and clean enough and the controls are very simple, being based on two keys to steer, one to accelerate, one to brake and one to change gear between the two types (slow and fast) available.

WHEELIE

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Another game where playing to lose was more fun than trying to win. Your motorbike riding hero took such spectacular dives when you crashed him into a double-decker bus that it was well worth losing a life or five to see it. All the same, even when you got bored of that, Wheelie was a great game in its own right, with a gloomy, sinister atmosphere and it was challenging enough to keep you at it for quite a while. Undoubtedly the greatest underground motorcycling game ever made.